Saturday, January 30, 2016

26th October 2015Late one evening, while surfing the net and watching TV simultaneously, I decided that I really needed to get some funding if I was going to be serious about providing quilts to Micah. It has been a couple of years since we actually presented any, even though we had a small stash growing in the box in my laundry. Most of us had used our left over wadding and we were suddenly faced with having to purchase more. The problem with being a NFP volunteer group is it tends to be self funded.So I started surfing the net and discovered that the Quest Newspapers had a funding round closing in under 24 hours. Now writing and editing funding applications in the science world is something I was familiar with, but Community Projects is a whole different ball game.

Patricia our Grant writer and tea maker

Now our little sewing group has a wide skill set that I could normally draw on in such an event, but our most skilled Grant writer was in Scotland and I had less that 24 hours to submit the application.But how hard can it be, right?So I logged on and started filling in the blanks. The maximum we could apply for was $1,000, and I needed to complete a budget. Thank goodness for Google!I made some pretty wild guesses and crossed my fingers that:

it was believable

it was achievable

and it might win!

I told the group about my spontaneous act of madness but I glossed over what I had pledged.....how hard could 30 quilts in 9 months be, right?

9th November 2015

The next component of this Grant thingy was shortlisting and Community voting.

The Queensland Community (any one who read their Quest Community Newspaper) were now called on to view the short listed applications and cast their votes. Everyone who registered to vote were allocated 10 votes. These votes could then be placed on one project or across a number of projects. There were some AMAZING applications - all worthwhile contenders.

And we were off!

Everyone in the group emailed everyone they knew and begged for their votes. Repeated posts on social media platforms appeared daily and colleagues at work were spammed!

Voting closed on the 20th November and results were to be released on the 2nd December.

The ladies have been busy working on their individual samplers based on the Elm Creek Quilt series. Helen has patiently guided our newbies in the art of block construction, cutting techniques and ironing strategies. I will be encouraging the girls to upload pictures of their completed blocks to keep us all inspired! The original quilt is 140 blocks but the consensus was to omit anything with an arc, circle or appliqué! This should make the task easier and we may get it finished before we all turn 50!

So come on girls - send me you photos and lets get this blog happening!